ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 213 



the Academy, and accordingly the Trustees had acted in the mat- 

 ter, in pursuance of the request contained in the letters referred to, 

 and had forwarded a reply expressing the sentiments of the Acad- 

 emy. On motion, the Academy endorsed the action of the Trustees. 

 The concluding portion of the report of the Committee on Foreign 

 Publications was read by the 8eci-etary ; also a translation by 

 Dr. A. B. Stout, of a paper by G. V. Frauenfeld, K. V., (Vienna, 

 1870,) on the " Extinct and Perishing Animals of the Earliest 

 Epochs." 



Dr. EUinwood read the following abstract from the Transactions 

 of the Society of Natural Sciences of Neufchatel, 1869—70, on the 

 principal discussions ■which occurred at the Archaeological Congress 

 at Copenhagen, 1869, pertaining to the shell mounds of Denmark: 

 M. Desor gives a brief resume of the principal discussions which 

 occurred at the Arch?eologic Congress at Copenhagen, in 1869. 



He mentions the large and well-classified collections of antiqui- 

 ties in Denmark, Avhere the entire population is interested in them. 

 It was in Denmark that the first classification of pre-historic 

 antiquities was made, and the ages of stone, bronze and iron es- 

 tablished. 



At this meeting of savants there occurred an interesting dis- 

 cussion of the Kjokken-moddings, or shell-mounds, found here and 

 there along the coast. These mounds consist of oyster-shells and 

 other mollusks, bones of fishes, mammifera and aquatic birds. 

 The deposits are ten to fifteen feet in thickness, and one hundred 

 to two hundred feet in width. Utensils are found in these mounds, 

 made of stone, of horn, of bone and of silex. Vases, too, of imper- 

 fectly baked clay ; also coals and cinders. It is concluded that 

 these mounds were made by the collection, at these places, of the 

 products of fishing and hunting by the primitive inhabitants of that 

 country, and during the age of stone. 



There are no traces of cereals, nor fruits, nor agriculture of any 

 kind, found in the mounds, and no traces of domestic animals — the 

 dog excepted. 



M. Desor completes his communication by an account of an 

 excursion by the Society to the shell mounds at the head of the 

 bay of Roeskild. Workmen had made trenches into the interior 

 of these mounds, for their exploration. 



